by Lucy Lyons
“Mess up what?”
Calvin sighed and sunk to his heels.
“There is a reason that Rhea is against dragon-human pairings and it’s not racial purity. Well, not entirely. She does believe that humans pollute the gene pool of dragons. But mainly, it is because a prophecy was made on the day she took the throne: that she wouldn’t keep it. A male dragon would take the throne from her and install his mate, a human, on it. This is why she was so infuriated when one of the dragon Lords, one of her own council, took a human mate, a seneschal. Rhea demanded he set aside the mate, but he refused, and the Council of Lords were divided on the matter.”
“Wait, I’ve never heard about this Council of Lords,” said Astrid.
“I know. It was broken. There was war between us then and many good dragons, many dragon Lords died.”
“And then the seneschals.”
“Yes,” sighed Calvin. “Rhea was just as glad to rule without the oversight of the Council. One of the things she decided was that we couldn’t associate that closely with humans again. And for many centuries she felt safe, until Tem brought you to the palace and her old fears were inflamed again.”
“And then she came to my room and found—”
“Yes. A dragon had taken a human mate. But not just any dragon, but the one she counts on to lead the dragons into battle against the humans.”
“Oh, dear Lord.”
“She means to kill you, Astrid.”
“How do you know?”
“She ordered me to do it.”
“What?” Astrid skittered back, and looked around wildly for something to use as a weapon.
“Astrid, relax. I’m not going to kill you. I’ve killed too many humans and that never should have happened.”
There was such regret in his voice, that Astrid understood something new about Calvin.
“In Hawthorne, you stopped eating not to protest your captivity.”
“No. Out of the all the dragons, I deserved it. They just didn’t schedule my death fast enough.”
“Oh, Calvin. No. You can’t think like that.”
“I can’t now. Tem needs all the help he can get to avert disaster for our kind. We can’t win in a war against your kind. There are too many of you. Your weaponry has grown with your technology. We must find a way to coexist.
“Astrid, I don’t know why things happened like they have. I don’t understand why Tem felt compelled to take you as a mate. But all that has happened was foretold many centuries ago. And dragon prophecies usually—” He stopped speaking and cocked his head toward the door. “I hear something. Get behind me, quick.”
Astrid didn’t hear any noise, but she trusted the super sharp hearing of dragons. She scuttled to position behind Calvin, who stood and drew a long knife from inside his robe.
Finally, Astrid heard scrapping noises at the door.
“Intruders?” she asked.
“I smell, along with the blood of Englishmen, the telltale scent of their weapons.”
“Government?’
“Yes, military.”
“Is that door locked?” asked Astrid.
“Yes.”
“And I don’t suppose there is a back door to this place,” she said.
“A dragon doesn’t need back doors,” said Calvin scornfully.
“Right, because they never come in handy,” said Astrid.
“Get down!” said Calvin.
Astrid barely had time to hit the floor before a horrendous blast shook the walls and tore the door off its hinges.
One word tore from her throat.
Tem!
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Tem
The natural healing powers of dragons couldn’t work fast enough to heal Tem from the beating he had taken at the hands of the palace guards. When he took to the air every muscle complained. But there was one thing that drove him: to get to Astrid as quickly as possible.
He hoped that Calvin would take them to his dragon hoard on his property in England. They had set it up as an emergency meeting place, long ago. But he wasn’t quite sure of Calvin’s loyalties at this moment. Calvin’s admission that he participated in the slaughter of the seneschals was a shocking confession. And Calvin had backed up Rhea’s arrest of Tem. He would just have to trust that Calvin would wait for Rhea’s word before he harmed Astrid.
Tem dropped between rushing as fast as he could through it, as he centered his thoughts on his family’s homestead and the upgraded WWII bunker that housed his dragon hoard. He took particular delight in that hoard, it being the first one he had assembled as a young dragon.
But now he hoped his most precious treasure was waiting for him there.
A sense of urgency overwhelmed him and he tore into the sky above his land, only to hear Astrid call to him, just as he caught sight of vehicles and men with weapons circling around the bunker.
Tem!
Astrid was afraid. And he had to get to her. At least he now knew where she was.
Tem swooped over the government men who had far too many weapons to be ordinary police. He roared loudly, his voice filled with thunder. The soldiers looked up and some started to fire. But Tem had his shield up and they fell away to the ground, peppering each other with their own fire.
He dove and picked up a man in his teeth and shook him like a rag doll while the soldier screamed in fright. Tem banked and dropped close to the ground and dropped the man to the grassy field, thinking he got better than he deserved. He roared again, warning all those who invaded his land to get off.
They did not get the message. Instead a huge rumble from deep in the ground filled the air and Tem felt Astrid’s fear spike. This infuriated him. How dare they endanger her? Tem now felt no compunction to leave these men alive and he landed, ready to take them all on. He tore into the men, flinging them into the air with a snap of his head, not caring where they would land. Someone cried for the men to fall back, and they scurried away from the shed like the rats they were.
Tem was about to shift when Astrid, then Calvin, tore from the doorway. He hurried to them, grateful that Astrid was alive and apparently unhurt.
“Tem!” Astrid cried.
“Let’s get out of here,” yelled Calvin, “before they regroup.”
Tem couldn’t agree more and extended his forepaw to Astrid.
Climb.
Calvin moved far enough away to shift and now two dragons stood tall over the soldiers. Astrid settled on Tem’s shoulders and clutched his hide firmly. Calvin took the air and Tem followed.
But they didn’t get far before a small missile tore through the air, and another.
Pain tore through Tem as a missile struck his right wing, knocking him off balance. He fell like a stone with Astrid clutching to him fiercely. The ground rushed up and he slammed into it.
Astrid flew off him with a cry and he shifted as he rolled. She stood and ran to him flinging her arms around his neck.
“Tem! Are you hurt?”
“It’s nothing.”
“Nothing?!” she said, looking at his bleeding arm.
Calvin circled around them and Astrid stared at him.
“Calvin tells us to go. He’ll hold them off.”
There wasn’t much Tem could do. With his wing injured, he couldn’t fly.
“Tell Calvin to be careful,” said Tem.
“I already did.”
Tem spotted a group of soldiers running toward them and he grabbed Astrid’s arm and pulled her along as he ran. He knew where he was. This was the place where he spent his summers and holidays when he wasn’t at school or Rhea’s palace.
Where are we going?
Follow me.
Tem ran for a stand of trees so they could have cover as they made their way to his house. They were in a desperate situation and Tem did not know what they would find when they got there. Any experienced military commander would figure that they would head there. But it was Tem and Astrid’s best option. He had money in the safe and they w
ould need that. If they were lucky, the caretakers hired to care for the estate would have a car they could take. At least he hoped there were caretakers. He had left access to enough money with his solicitors to take care of business for him while he rotted in the government prison.
Astrid stumbled behind him, which brought him back to the present. He stopped and steadied her as she struggled to catch her breath.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
She shook her head. “No, we have to keep going.”
Branches snapped behind them and they started running again. Tem saw the end of the windbreak ahead and, at the top of the hill, their objective: a two-story manor house. Its granite walls rose against a sky full of dark clouds and incipient rain.
Tem looked back at Astrid who nodded her head. They ran out of the woody windbreak and across the stretch of grass that became the slope that led to the crest of the hill. But inside of running straight off the hill, Tem pulled Astrid to the right and toward a stream that meandered close to the base of the hill. They rounded the broad curve and encountered a small waterfall and a pool at its base.
“This way,” Tem said and he bent and splashed through the shallow pull, drawing Astrid along with him. She gasped as he flung them through the waterfall and they stumbled into a cavern. Tem turned and grabbed Astrid and pulled her against him for a deep kiss.
For those brief seconds the world fell away. Their two hearts beat together as one. Nothing was as delightful as having her in his arms.
“What’s that for?” she asked when he finally pulled away.
“For being wonderful,” he said. “For being brave. For having faith in me.”
“I’ll always have faith in you, Tem.”
“But the hardest part is upon us,” he said. “We have to escape and I cannot fly, not yet. And we have to get away from here. Soon the soldiers will swarm all over the manse and there will be no escape. They’ll put me back into Hawthorn and you another jail altogether.”
“We’ll get out,” she said confidently. “When we are together, we can do anything.”
“I hope you are right, Astrid. Because we are going to need that and a fair amount of luck to get clear of this situation.”
“Let me look at your arm,” she said. “You’re a mess,” Astrid tugged on the hem of her uniform and ripped a strip of cloth from it, then stepped to the waterfall and wet it.
“We are on the run for our lives and you want to clean my arm?”
She picked up his arm and dabbed away at the blood on it.
“We can’t let it get infected,” she said as she lifted his right arm. Astrid drew in a deep breath. “It’s stopped bleeding. I didn’t know dragon healing worked that fast.”
“Depends on the dragon. For me the skin will seal together fast, but the deep tissue damage takes longer. This arm, this wing, won’t be functional for several hours.”
Astrid bent her head and kissed the area that was wounded.
“What was that for?” said Tem with a smile.
“Maybe a kiss will help it get better?”
“We don’t have time for kisses, or anything else.”
“Right,” she said, chastened. “So what’s our plan?”
“I should have money in my safe upstairs. It will be enough for us to buy a good escape across the channel and then I have some friends in Belgium that will help us get farther away.”
“Then let’s get on it, then,” she said.
“Oh, no. You wait here.”
“No,” she said firmly. “You aren’t leaving me alone again. I’m going with you.”
They didn’t have time to argue and Tem didn’t like idea of being separated any more than she did.
“You follow me and do what I say. I haven’t been in this house for a quarter century and I don’t know what is waiting there.”
She nodded. “How do we get there?”
“This way,” he said as he took her hand.
“A secret passage?”
“Yes, it was built during the French Revolution to help smuggle in French nobility.”
“Oh, you have history, Tem Rawlins,” she said with delight.
“This house does. Now, quiet, so I can listen.”
They stole deeper in the cavern that turned into a tunnel. Tem’s dragon eyes let him see just fine, but Astrid stumbled several times. Tem worried she would injure herself and scolded himself for not insisting she stay behind. A small spot glowed ahead, which Tem knew to be the start of the more finished part of the tunnel. A single electric light glowed there ahead of the wood door that led to the basement. Tem opened the door and searched with his hand for the switch that turned on more lights.
A few bulbs handing from the rafters switched on, revealing a room filled with leftovers of successive generations: dusty old tools, furniture and canned goods from Lord knows how many years past.
“This way, Astrid.”
Tem walked to a panel in the way and pushed it. It swung away to reveal a narrow stairway.
“You sure you want to come?” he said.
“Absolutely. You aren’t getting out of my sight again.”
Tem led the way, walking as quietly as he could. Astrid took off her heels and followed him. It was steep climb, as old secret staircases hidden in the walls of manor house tend to be. Tem reached the top, pressed his ear to the panel and heard nothing.
He hoped it was safe to open the door.
This panel slid to the side and it took a little effort, as apparently, it hadn’t moved in many years. But he managed to jerk it open with one last great pull and he looked in upon his study.
It was lit and a small fire burned in the fireplace, like he was expected. And apparently he was. Sitting behind his broad wood desk was the man that had engineered his imprisonment.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Astrid
Astrid saw Tem’s shoulders stiffen.
Run. Go back.
But when Astrid turned she found the bead of a laser site of a rifle pointed at her chest. She gasped and Tem turned to look past her to see the same thing. With lightning quickness, he threw his good arm around her waist and fell forward through the doorway Tem stood at the moment before. While Astrid rolled away, Tem slammed the panel shut and pulled a legal bookcase across it.
An amused rumble caught Astrid’s attention and as she got to her feet she got the surprise of her life. The Prime Minister sat at a large wood desk, smoking a cigar, looking very entertained. Tem swiftly got to his feet and put a protective arm around Astrid, glaring at the man.
“Tem, well, well,” the Prime Minister said with a predatory glint in his eye. “You’ve given us a good chase, but it is time we got you back to your cage.”
“Tem is innocent,” blurted Astrid.
“Well, of course he’s innocent, but that isn’t the point is it? Let’s see, you’re Astrid Davis, the matron that what? Helped him escape?”
“Don’t say a word Astrid.”
“Oh, please do speak. You have such a pretty voice, as well as, ahem, other attributes.”
Tem’s face turned red. “You keep your scaly claws off of her, you traitor.”
“What is this?” Prime Minister Abalon said as he rose from the desk. He stubbed his cigar in an ash tray. He sniffed like a dog would to catch a sent. “Have you mated with the human? Now, Tem, you know my mother won’t put up with that.”
“Mother?”
“Try to keep up, sweetheart,” leered Abalon.
“Rhea,” said Tem through gritted teeth, “is his mother.”
“And your cousin?” said Astrid.
“Oh, she is precious, Tem,” laughed Abalon. “Yes, we are cousins. But that hardly mattered to my mother. She made him her general anyway, a position that should have gone to me.”
“Well, you know your mother. She can’t stand the idea of someone trying to take her throne from her.”
“And what do you know of it?” said Abalon. “You weren’t even hatched yet.�
�
“Wait,” said Astrid. “Was he the dragon Lord that took a human mate and the dragons went to war over it?”
“Very good!” said Abalon. “You do go from zero to sixty in three seconds. My, aren’t you sporty?”
“Automobile references aside,” said Tem with annoyance, “what the hell are you doing here?”
“Here? In my own house? Oh, that’s right. You didn’t know that the government confiscated your property. But thanks for revealing that dragon hoard. I didn’t know it was there. I’ll make sure it receives a good home, along with that tasty bit of yours.” He smiled salaciously at Astrid.
“You will leave Astrid alone!” roared Tem. “She is my mate.”
“Ah, a mate bond? Too bad I don’t remember mine. Mother was quite good at erasing it.”
“So you betrayed her too,” snarled Tem, “by giving your mother permission to do that.”
“As you said,” said Abalon coldly. “Mother wasn’t going to allow me to take her throne. The prophecy warned her. Either I allowed her to erase the mate bond or go to my death. I chose to live.”
“Yes, after many good dragons died for your cause. You don’t deserve to lead the dragons.”
“I will,” said Abalon smugly. “Because I will cause the humans to rise up against our kind. It’s already begun. And thank you very much for raising panic in the country. The military is clamoring for the chance to root out and destroy the dragons here. By the time we are done, I will give mother a choice. Abdicate or face the extinction of our race.”
“You’re despicable,” snapped Astrid. “You’d use humans for your ambitions?”
“What else are humans for, dear? Now, come along. I have a nice cell for you.” Abalon stepped forward and grabbed Astrid’s arm.
“I told you,” growled Tem. “Keep your hands off her.” He rushed at Abalon, who backhanded Tem with such force that Tem flew across the room into a glass fronted bookcase. The glass shattered around Tem and he slumped to the floor groaning.
“Tem!” screamed Astrid.
“You really must try to forget him, dear,” said Abalon, tightening his grip on her arm to painful levels. “He will face the executioner in a few days’ time.”
